Framing accounting for goodwill: intractable controversies between users and standard setters

How to account for goodwill arising from business combinations has proven to be one the most controversial topics for the standardisation, preparation, and audit of financial reports. Given its contested nature, and recent debates about improper goodwill accounting by failing companies, standard setters are currently reconsidering existing recognition, measurement, and disclosure requirements. In this study, we explore the views of a relatively neglected group of stakeholders in the financial reporting policy-making arena – financial statement users. We draw on empirical evidence from interviews with financial analysts and from responses by analysts to IASB and EFRAG consultations. We mobilise framing theory as used in public policy studies to analyse how users make sense of goodwill accounting information as compared to standard setters. Our key finding is the plurality of colliding frames between users and standard setters that remain intractable. Our analysis reveals that users’ interest in management’s accountability on acquisitions cannot fit easily into the financial reporting frame. Not only are claims by standard setters about the value relevance of goodwill impairments found not to be experienced in practice, but also we discover that users question the benefits of standard setters working in this area, while they take recourse to ‘street numbers’ for their analysis. We interpret the intractability we discover as putting into question public policy claims that accounting policies are developed with a commitment to serve the public interest.